Victims of sexual assault in West Virginia may have an easier time finding health care providers to conduct forensic examinations and collect rape kits if a bill passed Monday by the state Senate becomes law.

Currently, some sexual assault victims have to travel hours to find a provider properly trained to complete forensic examinations, Republican Sen. Michael Maroney said. There are only a few hospitals in northern West Virginia with personnel who are properly trained to collect evidence from rape victims.

"That’s adding significantly more trauma, in my opinion, to the victim that’s already been traumatized," said Maroney, of Marshall County. "Every mile you drive, you increase the risk of contamination, so therefore you risk non-conviction."

Rape kits are used to collect evidence following sexual assaults, and can be used to link the assault to a suspect in existing DNA databases or develop a DNA profile that can be used in the future.

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The bill now headed to the state House of Delegates would require all hospitals in the state with an emergency room to have staff available 24 hours a day who are trained to conduct forensic examinations for sexual assault victims. The bill requires that providers receive the training from the Sexual Assault Forensic Examination Commission by July 2024.

Maroney said the change would be a challenge to implement as "it's a mandate on nurse training during probably the worst nursing shortage in our state’s history." But he said it's too important to wait.

"Timing is not ideal, but ... they’ve known its coming, they’re going to ramp up a little bit," he said of West Virginia hospitals. "They know it’s the right thing to do and they’re OK."

Hospitals would have about a year and a half to get staff trained and ready before the legislation became law, he said.

State officials launched an initiative in 2015 to start testing its nearly 2,400 shelved rape kits. Some of the kits dated back to the 1980s.

In 2020, lawmakers passed a bill requiring rape kits be submitted to the state police’s forensic lab within 30 days or as soon as possible after collection. That law also allows for rape kits to be tracked and requires that law enforcement get a court order before disposing of the examinations.

Twin brothers who died in a hail of gunfire last summer outside a Canadian bank had been planning their attack for years, with a goal to kill as many officers as possible, police said Friday.

An investigation by the Vancouver Island Integrated Major Crime Unit says 22-year-old Isaac Auchterlonie and his twin, Mathew, showed up at the Victoria, British Columbia area bank on June 28, 2022, wearing full body armor and carrying semi-automatic rifles.

The pair had strong antigovernment and antipolice views and did not expect to live past the confrontation, police said.

"It was determined the suspects’ primary objective was to shoot and kill police officers in what they saw as a stand against government regulations, especially in relation to firearms ownership," Royal Canadian Mounted Police Cpl. Alex Bérubé said during a news conference at the Saanich Police Department.

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As the twins left the bank, members of the Greater Victoria Emergency Response Team, who were in the area on an unrelated matter, drove into the parking lot to assist other officers, police said.

Six officers were injured in the ensuing gunfight. An earlier report said police fired as many as 100 rounds at the suspects, killing them both.

Bérubé said the pair had been planning some sort of "act of extreme violence" since 2019 and originally wanted the shootout to happen in mid-2023.

They decided to move up their timeline after finding out they had to move out of the house they shared with their mother.

"The suspects concluded that they could not move their arsenal of weapons to a new location without attracting attention, and thus electing the bank location at random," Bérubé said.

In the trunk of their vehicle, police discovered more than 30 improvised explosive devices, four additional firearms and more than 3,500 rounds of ammunition.

The brothers had licenses for both non-restricted and restricted firearms, Bérubé said.

Police say the 22 staff and customers being held by the men during the 16 minutes they were in the bank were not targeted and were only being held to draw a police response.